


The Prince of Swans

by ginnekomiko



Category: Princess Tutu
Genre: Gen, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-28
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2018-03-04 01:41:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2904641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ginnekomiko/pseuds/ginnekomiko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of a princess, her knight, a raven, and a little swan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_Once Upon a Time there was a man who died._

_The man was a weaver and teller of tales. Before he died, he was writing a story about a hero and a raven. With the man's death, their battle would continue without end._

_"I'm sick of this!" cried the Raven._

_"I'm sick of this too!" cried the princ-_ Oh, what's that? You've heard this story before, have you? Yes, yes, the story has four key players like the last. But wait! You didn't let me finish! What kind of writer would I be if I told the same story twice? Now, may I continue? Very well. Let's see, ah, yes!"

_"I'm sick of this too!" cried the princess as she plunged her sword into her chest and vanished into a pillar of light, leaving behind a single feather from the cloak at her back._

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tale proper begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mytho is called Cyg in this work.

 

The little cygnet felt himself drifting gently on the water. Half-asleep, he looked out to see a figure dancing in the morning mists.

_There she is again. She comes here every morning to dance._

The figure was slim, with long red hair and pretty blue eyes that reminded him of water. She had the grace and beauty of a princess. Yet, the way she danced it was so... mechanical, practiced perfection in every step. She never seemed to react to anything, either. Not the call of the birds, or the smell of the flowers, she just danced all by herself.

 _What do you look like when you smile?_ He thought. _Why am I wondering something like this? I'm just a little bird...._

The princess stopped dancing and looked out towards the lake. "Where... are you?" she whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks.

_Who are you waiting for?_

***

"Cyg. Get up already, or do you want to be late again?" a voice called.

"HONK!" said the boy as he flapped his arms around wildly.

"Jeez, Cyg" his roommate said as he handed him a tissue. "Do something about that cold, would you?"

"Thanks, Fakir," the boy said with a smile as he pretended to blow his nose.

"I'm going to go on ahead. Try not to be late or Mr. Cat will be mad at you again."

"Fakir, are you going to see Ahiru?" Cyg asked.

"Mind your own business, idiot!" Fakir said as he hurried out the door.

So he was right.

***

Cyg ran to his class. How had two hours passed so quickly? He was never very good at telling time. All those numbers got confusing! He stopped running when he saw a familiar girl in the bushes.

"What are you doing in there, Rue?" Cyg asked.

"Watching," Rue said quietly, keeping her eyes forward.

Cyg looked too. Fakir was sitting under the large tree in the center of campus. Sleeping on his arm was Ahiru, the mysterious girl who rarely said a word to anyone, but could dance with the top of the class.

"She's sleeping at a time like this? But it just turned morning," Cyg remarked.

Rue smiled a little. "My lady had another one of her dancing escapades. This one wore her out. She was only able to fall asleep because Fakir was near. So far, nothing of note has happened between them."

In the distance, a bell chimed.

"Isn't that the bell of the beginner's class?" Rue asked.

"Oh no! That's right! HONK!" said Cyg as he ran again.

Rue smiled again as the boy ran off in a rush. "Bird brain, take care of that cold." She brushed off her skirt before she approached Fakir. "I need to take her back now."

Fakir turned towards Ahiru. He didn't bother hiding his distaste for Rue's words. "It can't be time already. At least let me help you carry her back to your dorm."

Rue sighed. "Fine, but it's only because she looks so content."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dance class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I uh, usually try to not let works sit for this long without making a note of the hiatus. Sorry! I got over my block and now know where I want to go with it, so this will be updated more regularly now!

The bell continued to chime as the boy leapt gracefully into the classroom.

“Ah, Mr. Cygfried. So glad you could join us in the nick of time,” said a voice he knew.

The all too familiar glint of his teacher’s watchful eye made the hair on Cyg’s neck stand up. Perhaps it was instinct, what with his being a bird, and his teacher being a bipedal cat. Still, Cyg did his best to stand his ground. Ahiru was watching him, after all.

Her eyes still looked lost, despite their focus on him. It was as if she was looking beyond him entirely. Sleepily, she leaned against Fakir. When Cyg looked again, Rue was mouthing something at him.

“MR. CYGFRIED!”

Must. Not. Honk. “Um, yes?”

Mr. Cat sighed. “Oh never mind, please try to pay attention to the lesson. Miss Ahiru, if you would please demonstrate.”

Cyg couldn’t help but smile. Ahiru danced wonderfully by herself, she always did. It was then that Mr. Cat asked her to pick a partner. She chose Fakir, to the surprise of no one. Whatever natural talent she had was only amplified by him.

If Cyg ever got the chance to dance with Ahiru…

He’d probably step on her foot and make her cry. Fakir would glare at him, the girls would hate him, and Mr. Cat would lecture him. That would be the reality of it. He looked up for a moment. Ahiru was smiling at him, her hand outstretched as if to help him up.

“I um, you want me to dance with you?”

She nodded gently.

Well, now everyone was staring at him. He could feel Mr. Cat’s eyes on him. He could not mess this up.

“Thank you for this opportunity,” Cyg said with a smile.

Dancing with her felt like a dream. He did his best to ignore how she was the one leading him, and how mechanical the whole thing felt, but she seemed happy with him. Mr. Cat even commended him when the routine was over.

Still, there was something he was forgetting, what was it?

A warm feeling entered his chest. The sound of a bird fluttering by the window triggered a memory.

_The feathers!_


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tell me the tale of Princess Ahiru again.

Despite his appearance as a human boy, Cyg always felt small when compared to the Owl. Even now, as he towered over the great bird, his legs were shaking. It was only made worse when the Owl undid his spell. The magician was a strange mix of puppet-like features. His eyes were much too bulgy and his smile far too wide and predatory.

“You have forgotten your role,” he said, smiling that wide smile.

“No! I…” Cyg began.

“Who did I choose to collect the feathers of the Princess’s cloak?”

“Me.”

“And _why_ did I do that, little cygnet?”

“Because in order for the curse on her kingdom to be broken, the Princess needs to sew seven cloaks for her elder brothers, and then one for herself,” Cyg recited.

The man bit into a handkerchief he had in his breast pocket. “She was doing so well on her own too! The Princess only needed the one more cloak for herself! But then! That crafty Raven King came down tore all her hard work to pieces! She almost made it in time! In her sorrow, she offered up her own heart to save them!  Such a tragedy! That’s why I called you into the story! She’s searching for the ruined fragments of the feathered cloaks, but she can’t do it on her own, you know!”

Cyg nodded absentmindedly. The Owl tended to blather on.

“I have tracked them here to this town where stories and reality tend to mingle, but she needs a prince to come to her rescue! It’s the way of things, you know!”

“A prince?” Cyg asked. “But I’m not even really a human, let alone a prince.”

“Ah, but I can grant you that. Now that you remember your role, I will give you the eldest bother’s sword, said to cut through even the cunning heart of the Raven King! Now, tell me who you are, little cygnet?”

Cyg held the sword close. Yes, he could feel the eldest Prince’s courage and strength welling in him. To save Princess Ahiru and the Kingdom of Birds, that was his goal!

“I am the Prince of Swans!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plot begins again.

Rue paused from her morning walk around Gold Crown Town’s campus. She had so many questions regarding the scene she was witnessing as she was walking back to her dorm.

Why was Ahiru leaning out the window?

Why was she still in her _nightgown_?

A feather!

Rue broke out into a run. “Ahiru! Hold on!”

She had to act quickly, otherwise!

A flash of white light in the shape of a bird enveloped Ahiru, still Rue kept running. She only stopped when she saw Ahiru was safe within the light.

The light dissolved into the shape of a boy.

That tiny crown atop his head…

So, the Prince of Swans had finally shown his face, huh?

He had caught Princess Ahiru and was floating her gently down to the ground. The stray feather was clutched closely to her heart.

Rue sighed with relief. Good, she hadn’t lost it. She then swallowed her bubbling anger. Why was _he_ here? Perhaps, the Owl thought the story was moving too _slowly_.

Of course! It wasn’t enough that the conditions of the spell placed upon the princess were harsh to begin with, but _now_ she had to hurry along as well? True, Ahiru’s brothers weren’t fairing all that well these days, but that had only been a recent development! It _couldn’t_ just be a coincidence!

No, that man must have had something to do with the Prince’s arrival into Ahiru’s narrative.

The plot had started to move again without her consent, and this time, Ahiru had even less control of her destiny with this new hourglass.

Rue watched as their eyes meet. The Prince of Swans took the feather from her, and after a bit of magic he didn’t seem to know he had, he presented her with a completed feather cloak and bent down on one knee.

How courtly.

Ahiru gave him a warm smile, but shook her head, the cloak reverting to a single feather. She curtsied towards him before heading back to her dorm. As the Prince dashed away, Rue went to Ahiru’s side.

“You turned down his help?” she asked.

Ahiru nodded. She motioned to their room.

In the corner of their shared space was a magical loom. A gift from Ahiru’s late mother.

Ahiru would weave the cloak from the feather herself, as she had done before with all the others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... this took a different narrative turn than even I was expecting. (I didn't realize the meta narrative until I was editing it.) I hope people like it, because I'm going to stick with it!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cyg wonders what went wrong.

Cyg stood slightly dumbfounded at what had just transpired. He was still mulling over it after changing back into a bird. He paced back and forth.  He had saved the princess, right? He even offered her a way to break the curse, though she didn’t take it. Why hadn’t she? Why reverse a perfectly good cloak back into a feather?

The Owl had to know!

Cyg dashed back to the lake that used to be his home.

The Owl smiled his wide smile from a tall tree, despite the daylight. “So how did it go?”

“I helped her, but she didn’t take the cloak,” Cyg said.

The Owl rotated his head. “She didn’t? How strange. Usually that works on princesses. Are you sure you were heroic enough?”

“There’s a standard for heroics?” Cyg honked.

“Oh yes!” the owl said grinning down at the little cygnet running around in a panic. “Didn’t you know that?”

“No!”

“What is going on over there?” a familiar voice asked.

Rue.

“Oh, not you again! Nasty owl! Leave this little one alone!” Rue snapped. She swung a nearby stick as deftly as if it were a sword. The Owl, somewhere between bored and amused flew off after a particularly good swing on Rue’s part.

Rue’s annoyed expression melted when she saw the Owl leave. She smiled warmly held out her arms, inviting him to jump in, “Come here, little one.”

Cyg gladly accepted her invitation and fluttered into her arms. She was warm when he curled up against her. He was surprised that she held him so tenderly. She only really showed this kind of warmth to the princess.

“Come on, let’s take you back to the others,” Rue said as she started walking back to town.

Others?


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rue takes Cyg home.

Cyg felt himself drifting off into sleep in the comfort of Rue’s arms. Her gentle walking pace reminded him of being on the water. He only awoke when she shifted her arms to reach for a key in her pocket. With a slow creak, the large wooden door opened. This wasn’t the girls’ dorm was it?

No, it couldn’t be, this little house was filled with other birds. A canary was looking after her babies in a nest near a book shelf, chickens ran across the floor, clucking and scratching, a robin sang near a lamp.

“Is anyone still missing a child?” Rue called. “I found him about town.”

Heads turned, and silence filled the room for a brief moment, but then the birds went back to their business.

Rue scrunched her face a little, clearly puzzled. “Odd. All the other orphans are little starlings, why are you a cygnet? You are more than a normal bird, yes? I’m not losing my mind?”

Cyg gave a nod. True, he was actually a normal bird, but… was that really true anymore? Most other birds could not turn into a human.

“Perhaps you are not of our kingdom, then? I never thought of it like that. Did the wizard’s spell reach farther? Oh, I hope not. Princess Ahiru is stressed enough as it is.”

Sleeping in a large nest near the center of everything, were seven magnificent swans, each with a tiny crown on their heads.

Rue smiled a little when she saw the cygnet’s obvious awe. “If I wasn’t absolutely sure of the number of brothers our princess has, I’d almost assume you were the youngest.”

Brothers? Princess Ahiru had brothers!

Rue picked him up again. “Stay with me for a moment, will you?” Cyg didn’t have much of a choice, as she was pacing with him still in her arms, but he had never thought about refusing her. 

She placed him down on the kitchen counter as she prepared a kettle and an array of snacks. “I must prepare for story time, and my dear princess so loves to have her favorite tea during her prince’s story time.” Rue scoffed a little. “I suppose I should keep a cup for _him_ as well for when he finishes.” Rue smiled when she looked back at Cyg. “And of course, I’ll have one for you as well, if you’re a tea drinker, anyway.”

Rue was cute when she smiled like that. Cyg found himself blushing, even though he’d never had tea in his life.  


End file.
